Ambiguity costs

The Vatican Press director gave an interesting talk to the Catholic Media convention in Toronto this week on the topic ‘When the Pope speaks to the world’. It gave Fr. Federico Lombardi the chance to zero in on the problems in mass communications, the toll they take and the antidote to mass distortion in the media.

A key message in Fr. Lombardi’s talk was the “balance between the positive message and the clear identification of evils, divisions, weaknesses and dangers” present in the world.

Despite stressing an emphasis on the positive, Fr. Lombardi was very clear that issues need to be addressed with courage and clarity.  “We have to know how to recognize and denounce the evils, the risks and the dead ends present in contemporary culture,” he said. 

The consequences for failure in this regard are dire, he suggested.  “It is vitally important to tell the truth with clarity and simplicity. Every ambiguity, every reticence and, worse still, every intentional concealment of the truth, will exact a dear price in the end.

The sex abuse crisis proved that, he said. Which is why Pope Benedict addressed it early and often on his papal visit to the US.

The Vatican spokesman said that he was nonetheless convinced, “that we must use the power of the word only to bring people together and never to drive them apart, to make peace and not to create conflicts, to aid mutual understanding, dialogue, the building of a community whose richness is greater precisely because it is the result of the fusion of so many different gifts.”

The pope, Lombardi says, believes the Christian message starts with the positive, while not overlooking troubling realities.

“His critique of relativism, subjectivism, individualism, of materialism and hedonism, is frequent and frank, especially as regards current tendencies in European culture. He is convinced that values are at stake which are extremely important for humanity, for society and the future.”

The Pope, said Lombardi, “is convinced that the manipulation of life and the distorting of the proper relationship between a man and a woman pose very serious risks for humanity.”  The spokesman concluded the point saying that Benedict XVI “is convinced that closure to a transcendent horizon causes us to lose our basic points of reference and he maintains that it is his duty to say so with clarity.”

Benedict also says that everyone who sees clearly has a duty to speak up publicly.

The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.

With clarity.